Education in South Africa

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South Africa has 12 million learners, 366 000 teachers and around 28 000 schools - including 390 special needs schools and 1 000 registered private schools. Of all the schools, 6 000 are High schools (grade 7 to grade 12) and the rest are Primary schools (grade 1 to grade 6).

School life spans 13 years - or grades - although the first year of education, grade 0 or "reception year", and the last three years, grade 10, 11 and grade 12 or "matric" are not compulsory. Many Primary schools offer grade 0, although this pre-school year may also be completed at Nursery school.

Recently, great advances have been made in the introduction of new technology to the formerly disadvantaged schools. Organisations such as khanya ^[1], (Xhosa for enlightenment) have worked to provide computer access in state schools. Many schools have created ICT(Information and Communications Technology) links with colleges across the world. The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (http://www.ssatrust.org.uk) has been very active in supporting mutually beneficial partnerships.

A recent national initiative has been the creation of "FOCUS" schools. These specialise in specific curriculum areas (Business & Commerce, Engineering, Arts & Culture) and are very similar to the UK specialist schools programme.

For university entrance, a matric "endorsement" is required, although some universities do set their own additional academic requirements.

South Africa has a vibrant higher education sector, with more than a million students enrolled in the country’s universities and universities of technology. All the universities are autonomous, reporting to their own councils rather than government.

[edit] Restructuring

The apartheid regime created different universities for different race groups, often in close proximity and offering the same courses, but neglected the development of historically black institutions. In a country with scarce resources, with institutions of uneven capacity, there was an urgent need to cut down on costly duplication and improve quality across the sector.

After several years of investigation and consultation, the government announced plans to radically restructure higher education through mergers and incorporations that was completed by January 2005 and created 22 institutions out of an existing 36 universities and technikons. Out of the 36 institutions 22 were selected for mergers, four for major incorporations (or loss of facilities), one was being dismantled and its multi-sites slotted into other institutions, and there are 10 new university names.

[edit] See also

• List of universities in South Africa
• List of high schools in South Africa
• List of primary schools in South Africa

[edit] References

1. ^ Khanya ICT schools in the Western Cape